[B-Greek] John 18:37
Harold Holmyard
hholmyard at ont.com
Mon Jan 8 07:57:32 EST 2007
Randall Buth wrote:
> >18:37 EIPEN OUN AUTW O PILATOS, OUKOUN BASILEUS EI SU ; APEKRIQH O
> IHSOUS, SU LEGEIS OTI BASILEUS EIMI. EGW EIS TOUTO GEGENNHMAI KAI
> EIS TOUTO ELHLUQA EIS TON KOSMON, INA MARTURHSW TH ALHQEINAS
> This exchange between Pilate and Jesus has always seemed odd to me
> because it seems so stilted. My range of reading in greek is limited
> to the NT, LXX, and a limited amount of other attic and koine
> sources. I'm sure someone else on the list can point to an example
> from other texts of how this conversation should read. The OUKOUN
> ( not therefore ?) is used only here in the NT and is puzzling to
> me. Everyone I have read reads it as , "So, you are a king..." Is
> there another example of this kind of use somewhere else? Why does
> Jesus respond SU LEGEIS OTI BASILEUS EIMI with a sort of ( to me at
> least) indirect answer? Obviously I am not familiar with this kind
> of conversation. What are the nuances behind the words?
> David Rollins>
>
> OUKOUN is a conversational word that has developed and picked up a
> meaning that might be thought the opposite of it etymology. As a
> positive question word it became a positive response. Isn't it? > So
> it is. You will find the word frequent in philosophic discourses like
> Epictetus.
HH: LSJ lists two different words under the letters OUKOUN, using
different accentuation for each. One stems, they say, from an Ionic word
or spelling, and the other from a Doric word or spelling.
Yours,
Harold Holmyard
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